Extracurricular Sketcher Fest: UW Quad and Lake Union Park

 

7/8/26 UW Quad cherry trees

Although the University of Washington Quad cherry trees get all the fanfare when they blossom, those same trees have sublime beauty in fall. In summer, they hardly get any notice, but I love these old trees in all seasons.

Cathy is in town for Sketcher Fest, and I thought it would be fun to show her the UW campus, including the Quad’s cherry trees. Without showy blossoms, the massive, gnarled trunks can steal the show.

The next day, despite a light rail power outage that slowed our travel down considerably, I enjoyed showing Cathy Lake Union Park and the vintage boats moored there.

7/9/26 Lake Union Park

Discovery Park Radar Tower

 

7/7/26 Discovery Park

Since I hadn’t been to Discovery Park in many years (since 2012, according to my blog), I ended up hiking on many incorrect trails to find this view of the 100-foot Ft. Lawton radar tower. Now a landmark historic site, the US Air Force’s Cold War “Radome” operated from 1960 to 1963.

I can see this "golf ball" from my house in Maple Leaf seven miles away! My intention was to make a larger color sketch, but with no shade, I never got past this thumbnail study. I’ll go back on a less sunny day to sketch it again.

The Most Direct Path

 

5/18/14 Cannon Beach

3/1/16 Cannon Beach

On July 2, I lost my beloved spouse guy of 37 years. Loss is not new to me; I have been losing Greg a little more each day for many years. After walking with him on the long, hard road through dementia, I am relieved and grateful that he is finally free.

5/23/19 Photographing the viaduct

9/30/16 Greg watching as our skylight is reinstalled.

My heart is broken.

Even when I knew the end was close, I kept drawing. The day he died and every day since, I have continued drawing. It heals and sooths me as nothing else can. The world may feel like it has stopped, but in fact, it goes on, and I’m still part of it. Drawing is my most direct path to all that I love about life, even when the biggest part of it has gone.

(Shown here are a few sketches I’ve made of Greg, mostly from my early sketching years. I’ve also practiced a few portraits from photos, and I think I got him to sit for me briefly just once. I made my last drawing of him two days before he died. That one’s just for me and won’t be shared.)

4/28/26

Green Lake Trees

 

7/5/26 Green Lake Park

Every now and then, I’m a good girl: Before launching into the larger color sketch, I made a small thumbnail (below) to study the composition.

PSA: Sketchbook ID

 

I put these labels on all sketchbooks (and even notebooks) I take out of the house. I regret that they look so messy -- the digitally garbled text is just to obscure the phone numbers for this post. The line that has been Sharpied out, however, is my former email address, which I changed shortly after I got hundreds of these labels printed on sale. Poor timing.

Look at the sketchbooks you’re using right now: Is your contact information somewhere on the covers? If not, put it there – RIGHT NOW! (Go ahead – I’ll wait here.)

It is usually hearing yet another sad story of a sketcher losing their sketchbook that prompts me to trot out this PSA. Just in the past few weeks, I’ve heard two such stories. One book is still at large, but contact info is in place, so we’re all hoping that book eventually finds its way back home. Eleanor Doughty recently wrote of her ordeal of losing a sketchbook while traveling in Washington, DC – and she eventually got it back! But I’ve heard many other stories without happy endings – and usually it’s because the books had no contact info.

Lately I’ve been adding an additional label to my sketchbook covers: My emergency contact’s phone number. Here’s my logic:

I used to follow an old bit of advice I learned way back when smart phones were new. My emergency contact person could be found as ICE (“in case of emergency”) pinned to the top of my phone’s contacts listing. Apparently first responders know to look for the ICE designation. But it occurred to me that my phone is now secured, so a first responder wouldn’t be able to get to that information. I needed a different solution.

I asked myself, When am I most likely to be out alone when I might befall an emergency? The answer: When I’m out sketching. If my sketchbook is in my bag or nearby, maybe someone coming to my aid would think to look in it for contact info? I hope so.

Bothell 4th of July Parade

 

7/4/26 Bothell 4th of July parade

I think the last time I went to a small town 4^th of July parade was in Edmonds in 2019. This year I was in the mood to try a different one – Bothell. I talked Ching into joining me for the small town experience, but it turned out not to be so small after all!

Lasting an hour and a half, the parade included all the usual marching bands and local dignitaries on floats, but also unusual characters that I didn’t recognize and unexpected organizations, like a Sikh motorcycle club. Receiving the most enthusiastic applause were the colorful lion dancers.

Although it was impossible to sketch everything, I tried to grab whatever stayed within my field of vision for more than a few seconds. During lulls, I caught a few audience members (I’d hoped more would be dressed appropriately for the holiday, but I hardly saw any star-spangled clothing). What a fun time!

A New 4th Tradition

 

7/3/26 Old Stove Brewery Gardens, Ballard neighborhood

A typical weather pattern lately, the overcast morning gave way to sunny skies by late afternoon for USk Seattle’s drink & draw. We met this time at Old Stove Brewery Gardens in Ballard, which was the location of a drink & draw on the same occasion last year: the day before the 4^th of July holiday.

I usually write more observations or overheard dialog on these types of pages, but I was too busy with good conversations this time!

With good conversation over brews (and my grilled corn on the cob) under nicely shaded tables, we thought we were a small turnout. Halfway through, we discovered a bunch more sketchers inside the brew pub, where they had been viewing a World Cup match. Our group turned out to be much larger than we realized at first! By the time of our throwdown, the match was over, so everyone came outside.

It was a fun way to kick off (did you see what I did there with a sports mixed metaphor?) the holiday weekend. And now that we’ve done it for two consecutive years, it’s a tradition, right?